


All I Want for Christmas Is You

by Kyiora



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Ana Amari Is The Best Wingwoman Ever, Background Jesse McCree/Hanzo Shimada, Bad Pick-Up Lines, But only a bit, Christmas Music, Christmas Party, Coach Gabriel Reyes, Dean Jack Morrison, Flirting, Fluff, Humor, Jack might be a bit drunk in the end, M/M, Sweet Jesse McCree, Young Ana Amari, Young Hanzo Shimada, Young Jesse McCree, Young Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Young Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 15:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12820407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyiora/pseuds/Kyiora
Summary: Jack Morrison hates Christmas, and he hates the yearly Winter Dance at the college where he is dean.  It doesn't help that he totally doesn't have a crush on coach Gabriel Reyes, or that his best friend Ana is teasing him about it as though it were her job.How will Jack survive?





	All I Want for Christmas Is You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DanTheExplodingCreeper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanTheExplodingCreeper/gifts).



> Hello everyone!
> 
> This is my contribution to the R76 Secret Santa Event and my present for DanTheExplodingCreeper! I wrote this story while listening to Feliz Navidad for an unhealthy amount of time and eating Peanut caramel chocolate, so what does that mean?
> 
> It's going to be crazy.
> 
> No seriously, I like the idea of sappy middle-aged men dancing together, so this was a pleasure to write!

It was the monotone beeping of his alarm clock that tore Jack from his sleep, annoyingly loud and tempting him to bury his head in the big white pillows again. Jack Morrison hated Monday mornings, without exception: they were gray, stressful, and rainy most of the time. Or at least Jack was convinced they were. 

With one half-lidded eye, the other was hidden behind his pillow, he tried to turn off the annoying sound. He loudly groaned when his fingertips missed the button and the beeping became louder.

In the end, nothing helped. Jack sat up with a grumble and the amount of sheer offense to his eyes when he stared at the phone was enough to make him want to tear the phone apart. 

Why did his mornings have to be like this?

Jack finally hit the snooze button, and his breath tickled his palms as he hid his face. The reason why he felt so horrible was as simple as it was nerve-wracking.

Christmas. Or to be more specific Winter Dance.

His cheek hit the soft surface of his pillow and all the air that had been in his lungs got forced out in a very unpleasant way: why did he choose to work at a university again? That shit only caused trouble. It wasn’t even that he was just a professor. No, if Jack wanted to die because of stress, he did it right: he was the dean of one of the most renowned schools in Massachusetts. Which had to hold a Winter Dance every year. Of course it did.

Jack Morrison loathed Christmas as much as he did Mondays. Even more so than Mondays, if he was honest. Everyone was annoyingly nice and Jack knew all of the smiles people gave him were even more faked than usual. It had nothing to do with gracefulness and contemplation anymore. It was just blind consumption, and Jack didn’t want to support that.

He wasn’t even sure how he had survived the past few years. He needed to be present at the event from the very beginning to the very end, which was way too long in his opinion. Especially when Gabriel Reyes was there. 

Just the thought of Reyes got him so worked up that he could have spent the whole day just silently raging about him.

Gabriel Reyes was Jack Morrison’s not-so-secret crush, thanks to his best friend Ana Amari, who had decided to be their personal relationship adviser some months ago. Jack didn’t approve, but she simply ignored his opinion on the matter. 

He had to admit that he didn’t do a very good job of hiding his crush, but what should he do? Gabriel Reyes’ butt was something else, and it basically forced him to look at it. It was almost creepy how much it affected him.

Of course, thinking about Reyes’ butt brought the image to mind, and Jack whimpered in despair. What did he do to deserve a life like this?

An indignant snort clashed against his palms when his alarm went off again. Jack wanted to throw it against the opposite wall.

 

A harsh breeze hit Jack in the face when the front door of his apartment snapped shut behind him, and he wanted nothing more than to go back to bed and hide under his blanket. This day could only get worse and he knew it would.

With a scowl he turned right, towards the school. The sidewalk was covered by a thin layer of ice and Jack almost slipped when he quickened his steps,  a grunted “fuck” catching in his crimson red scarf. 

Jack didn’t even know what bugged him so much about winter. Ana tended to say he suffered from seasonal depression, but Jack didn’t believe her nonsense: he didn’t get depressed only because it got darker outside earlier, he just ... didn’t feel that well, that was all. 

With a scowl that could have killed kittens, Jack continued walking towards the college, his nose tip red and the few strands of hair that peeked out from under his beanie covered in tiny snowflakes.

Jack hated winter Mondays.

  
  


The staff room was busy when Jack entered it, and he almost bumped into Orisa, the computer science professor, whose dreadlocks slapped his arm though his thick pullover when she swirled around.

“Ah, sorry, Mr. Morrison!” she apologized in a hushed voice before she hurried out of the room, the white cup she held filled with rooibos tea swinging dangerously near the door frame. 

Jack sighed in agony ... it wouldn’t be the first time she destroyed a mug. It was like a sport for the whole faculty: at least one cup ceased to be every month, whether it was though negligence or because someone bumped against the table. Why was everyone surprised when the mugs fell off the table when they rested too near the edge? Wasn’t it obvious? 

Jack had no time to think about all the destroyed mugs though; the mountains of papers on his desk screamed to be finished and the clock ticked overbearingly behind him, reminding him that he had to head to his office soon.

The only reason he even came to the staff room in the mornings was the working coffee machine. The one he had had in his office had been broken for some time now, and he hadn’t had a chance to get a new one. He had paid for the now-broken one himself because he was simply too lazy to get to the staff room every morning, but now he had to if he wanted coffee. Wonderful. 

It wasn’t as crowded as he had thought it would be. Torbjörn, the mechanic's professor sat on his seat, legs dangling several inches the ground, which made his minor height even more obvious. 

Next to him sat Reinhardt, his best friend, who taught history. The enormous German man had begun to laugh when Jack entered the room, and it drowned out every other conversation in the vicinity. 

This caused Ana Amari to roll her eyes while she talked to none other than Gabriel Reyes.

Of course, it had to be Reyes, no one else could possibly have been talking to his best friend at exactly this moment. Gabriel’s smile revealed his pearly white teeth, which reflected the harsh LED light above them. It made him look like a stupid model or something and Jack hated it.

Generally, he disliked everything about Gabriel. He was cocky, tacky and far too dramatic for Jack’s comfort. Right now, his deep laugh filled the room and caused a shiver that run over Jack’s back. Out of disgust, of course. 

“Hey, Jack!” Ana suddenly called and tore Jack out of his wandering thoughts. He nodded at her, trying to avoid any kind of eye contact with Reyes. Quickly, he turned to the cupboard where the coffee mugs were located. 

From the corners of his eyes, he saw how Gabriel said something to Ana, which made her laugh in return. His stomach suddenly felt heavy and ugly, like poison had been spilled into it.

Luckily, Gabriel decided to leave at the exact moment Jack turned around. Their eyes met for a few seconds: Gabriel gave him an easy going smile while Jack turned away, hoping to keep his face as nonchalant as possible.

It didn’t seem to work, judging by Ana’s snicker. Almost lazily she walked towards Jack, as though she didn’t find joy in things like these.

“Very smooth, my friend, very smooth.” Ana grinned while she elbowed his left side, her lips hidden behind her blue coffee mug with the ugly reindeer on it, which made him even growl louder. She was probably laughing because of his ridiculous attempts to get his favorite mug, blue with a huge red ‘76’ on it. Unfortunately, every other teacher had decided to put their mug in front of it, so Jack had to pull all of the others out of the cupboard or push them aside.

This was another reason Jack hated the staff room. Too many people drank coffee, or tea, or whatever, so there were way too many mugs. Bastion, the geography professor, had a really big mug with a yellow bird on the front, and it stood directly in front of his. He would have loved nothing more than to throw it out of the window.

A pleased grunt vibrated through Jack’s throat as he finally found his mug, but he could still see the playful grin that tugged on the corners of Ana’s mouth, even though she tried to hide it.

“Don’t smile like that,” he grunted when he turned toward the kitchen counter. He didn’t want to see her shit-eating grin, not yet. He wasn’t in the mood to discuss his life choices or his terribly embarrassing non-existent crushes. 

He was a grown man, damn it, 37 years old. He was the dean of a college, he had honor, and yet he couldn’t deny the fluttering beats in his chest every time he saw Gabriel Reyes. He felt like a teenager with a first crush.

He didn’t pay so much attention to Ana, what caused him to almost dropping the mug he had just managed to maneuver out of the cupboard.

“Why should I ever stop, Jackie?” Ana asked and her smug smile made Jack wanting to throw something. But he decided against it, instead, he ignored her and went to the coffee machine next to the sink, which had only one mug in it.

That of Gabriel Reyes’.

It was black, just rich black. Only white lettering saying  _ Black is the new black _ lightened the boring cup. It was… stylish and Jack couldn’t suppress the small smile on his face. Gabriel wasn’t that obnoxious.

Deep inside, Jack had to admit that he even admired Gabriel, somehow. He was a good coach, many students’ favorite. He had earned that title with not only his winning smile, but his easy-going nature. His lessons and his marks were fair, and it wasn’t unusual for him to make accommodations for people who weren’t that athletically-inclined. 

Sometimes, Jack was a bit jealous of the other man. His connection to the students was something else, something he could never achieve himself.

Ana had placed her mug on the counter, crossing her arms, and her long fingers tapped out a rhythm Jack didn’t know. He frowned at her.

The chuckle he got in return made him want to pass his ched quietly before she raised her voice again: “Oh come on, Jack. Did you sleep badly or something?”

“No.”

“Is it the winter depression?”

A grunt.

“Oh well, so it’s Gabriel Reyes.”

This time, Jack didn’t say anything -- it was like a silent signal for Ana to stop talking right now. Or he was just busy with not spilling the coffee anywhere.

Of course, she didn’t. 

“I will gladly say it again: you should use my pick-”

Jack spun around, and the furious look on his face promised ugly consequences. But Ana wouldn’t be Ana if she shied away from a challenge. So she stared back. And stared. And stared.

The steaming coffee behind him was forgotten during the epic staring battle, as were all of the other people in the room. Neither Jack or Ana responded to Angela’s “goodbye” when she left the room, or the yell of Torbjörn, who was sitting next to Reinhardt and just had hot coffee spilled spilled onto his lap.  They didn’t even hear his pained scream, continuing to stare at each other. It held some sort of strange magic, as though only they existed in their little stare contest world.

“Maybe,” Ana finally mumbled, and Jack could see how much she tried not to blink. “You should be more open about your feelings?”

The stare of pure hate she got in return was answer enough.

 

The light that broke through the thin curtains in Jack’s room danced on the ceiling and created patterns he couldn’t describe. His arms were crossed behind his head, his fingertips dangling over the clean sheets.

It was one week after the coffee catastrophe and the staring battle, one week before the winter dance. 

Jack mind still felt like jelly when he thought about Gabriel. There was no real solution, no real idea what he could do about it. It was just acceptance.

With a sigh, he turned around. There was nothing he could do about this anyway, so he just had to accept it. In defeat, he closed his eyes. 

Acceptance was hard.

 

The assembly hall was crowded with both professors and students. ‘Santa Claus is coming to Town’ played softly in the background, partially drowned out by conversation.

All kinds of students had taken to the dance floor, and Jack had been able to make out several whom he knew, including Jesse McCree, who currently danced with Hanzo Shimada, the school’s best physics student.

They were an odd pair, if Jack was, to be honest: the rugged, tacky Jesse and the regal and disciplined Hanzo. But it proved the saying that opposites did, in fact, attract, according to their very prominent laughing.

Jack tripped from one foot on the other when he took the elegant mug of punch Ana handed him. She gave him a pointed look which made him stop in a second. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled, and quickly raised the mug to his lips. The punch burned on his tongue, but he refused to stop drinking. The burn was calming as it ran down his throat and prevented his best friend from asking questions.

He followed her eyes with interest, which fell, of course, on Gabriel Reyes, who was currently busy making a fool of himself. Jack knew that he wasn’t being fair with that assessment: Gabriel was an amazing dancer.The way he swung his hips should have been illegal, but he refused to think about that. 

“You know,” Ana said lightly, as though she were talking about the weather, “you should go and talk to him.”

Jack’s groan got lost in his drink, splashing it onto his nose. Ana stared at him when he lowered his mug. Embarrassed, he wiped the liquid from his nose tip. His ears burned when he heard Ana chuckling.

“You’re a mess, Jack Morrison.”

Well, nothing new here.

She looked at him with thoughtful eyes before she hummed lowly. “Remember the pick-up lines from the freshmen?” she asked, and her grin was more than just teasing.

Jack sighed and reached out for another cup of punch -- he would need a lot of it if he wanted to survive this evening. His answer was muffled in the corner of the mug while he eyed the punch in interest: “Of course I do.”

“What was your favorite?” Ana giggled, and her glass of champagne dangerously leaned to the left, almost causing the liquid to slosh over the rim of the glass.

Jack chuckled and looked around. His eyes felt on the dance floor, and again on Hanzo and Jesse, who were dancing like maniacs. Jack watched Jesse dip Hanzo down so he laid in his arms, and the flushes on their faces told Jack that they were aware just how romantic the gesture was. 

Jack rolled his eyes at their display.  

“It think,” he mumbled while he looked further over the dancing floor, “it’s ‘I know it’s not Christmas, but Santa's lap is always ready.’”

Ana’s laugh filled his ears and he wasn’t sure if it was the punch’s fault, but it made him happier than usual. He allowed himself to start chuckling as well.

“Oh, my favorite one was: ‘Wanna check out my mistletoe belt buckle?’” she gasped, and her laughter shook her whole body, causing her champagne to finally splash over the rim of her glass. 

Ana hissed when the liquid hit her white blouse. Jack stretched out his arm behind him, attempting to feel for napkins or anything else that could help -- he was sure he had seen some when he had gotten a new drink several minutes before, and he sighed in relief when he recognized the soft surface under his finger tips.

Ana took the white napkins with a frown  “I’ll go to the bathroom, need to get it off!” she said quickly. 

Before Jack could reply, she had already turned around and bolted off, nearly running into  Lena Oxton, runner on the girls’ cross country team, as she turned for a final comment in Jack’s direction. “Don’t forget the pick-up lines, they can help you with your crush!” she called with a highly unprofessional wink before heading off.

“Jack Morrison has a crush? That’s really a Christmas miracle,” a deep voice behind him resonated, which caused a shiver running down Jack’s entire body.

No.

This couldn’t happen.

Not now. 

What had he done to deserve this? He hadn’t done anything, he had just been standing here, thinking about nothing evil...

Why did it have to be him all the time? It wasn’t fair.

“I can’t really see why it could be your business, Mr. Reyes,” he answered as he turned around. Mentally, he gave himself a pat on his back. He was really smooth today.

Gabriel Reyes was stunning, especially in a deep red silk shirt and a black bow tie. His pants accentuated his long legs, and Jack wondered if it was possible to be arrested because you caused heart failure with your beauty.

“Hey, no need to get aggressive, boss,” Gabriel answered, a small smirk on his nude lips.

God, his lips were so kissable, Jack wanted to-

 

Okay, where were those thoughts coming from? Jack had trained to keep his feelings under wraps, it was not normal for them to come up like that. Especially not his stupid thoughts about Gabriel. He had dealt with them long enough that he had decided to abandon them in the depths of his mind.

Gabriel Reyes was everything Jack wasn’t: sassy, careless and relaxed. Things Jack wished to be as well but obviously couldn’t. 

“Or,” a mean little voice inside his head whispered, “you’re afraid to be because everyone would judge you.”

Jack growled on his inside, that wasn’t true... or was it?

The faint blush on Gabriel’s cheeks while he smiled at Jack and the way his eyes gleamed did things to Jack’s heart that he wasn’t sure he would survive.

“I’m not aggressive,” he finally said and turned away, desultory, but not so far that he couldn’t keep an eye on Gabriel.

Jack’s company put down his glass of champagne on the table and leveled a pointed look in Jack’s direction: “Were you flirting with Amari before?” Gabriel’s voice was surprisingly calm for such a personal question, and Jack almost choked on his punch. He was sure he already blushed before, but now it intensified in an undreamed dimension; not only because of embarrassment but of anger.

How dare him! What was it to him? Nothing! He had no right to ask him about Ana! Hot fury shoot through his body, making his blood boil and all of his muscles were strung to the breaking point.

He wanted to lash out at Gabriel, but in the next moment, he had second thoughts. It was like a wave that hit him right in his face.

Why was he angry in the first place? Because Gabriel assumed that he and Ana were a thing?

No, not really, no. It was something... different.

It was because Gabriel thought he had flirted with Ana. That was it. 

Jack thought of Gabriel like some sort of lover, like that they were already a thing. Which they weren’t.

Gosh, how low could someone get? Very, very low, according to Jack Morrison.

His voice was low and breathy when he answered: “No, not really.”

“So you were exchanging pick-up lines for fun?”

A growl left Jack’s throat when he heard Gabriel’s cocky voice. This man was too self-confident for his own good. 

But maybe that could be the key to success for Jack today. Anything was pointless anyway, it was late, the youngest students were already gone, some teachers as well, and Jack was half-drunk and venturesome.

Gabriel didn’t seem to be at the height of his mental faculties, judging by his unfocused eyes. It was worth a try.

“No, actually, we were searching for a good pick-up line I could say to you.”

Silence followed the statement. Gabriel’s eyes widened in a comical way, and Jack briefly wondered if they were about to fall out. The coach tried to say something several times, but nothing came out.

He looked like a dying fish on land. Jack left him no time to recover.

“You know,” Jack continued, and he felt his mind become emptier and emptier the more he leaned in Gabriel’s direction, “if you jingle my bells, I’ll promise you a white Christmas.”

Gabriel’s face had gone red when Jack raised his eyes. The smug grin was gone from Gabriel’s face and had found a new place in Jack’s mouth, much to his pleasure. The electric feeling in his chest spurred him on, alongside with the look in Gabriel’s eyes that told him that he didn’t know what to do.

Finally, Jack was the one who had the situation under control, for the first time since he had known Gabriel. No stupid, cocky sayings anymore, no self-confident grins or haughty chuckles. 

Just Gabriel and Jack.

If he had known how easy it was to embarrass Gabriel, hell, he would have done it a million times.

Just as Jack wanted to start flirting with Gabriel again, a disgusted noise from the other side of the table interrupted him. Both of them whirled around in the same second, only to be greeted by Jesse McCree’s distasteful face, which was dangerously close to Hanzo’s.

“Can’t you flirt somewhere else?”

Jack didn’t know how to react for the first few seconds, but Gabriel was faster than him and gave his student an unmistakable look. “Interested in helping me clean the gym equipment sometime after the break?” he asked Jesse in a dangerously low voice, which made the young man visibly uncomfortable.

Hanzo’s eyes met Jack’s while they watched the two other, their looks jumping between them as if they were following a ping-pong match. Jack gave Hanzo a small smile, which he returned.

“N-No sir, of course not, sorry!”

And with that, McCree wrapped his arms around an amused Hanzo, whose cheeks were also a bit red, and cleared out at a smart pace. Jack and Gabriel both looked after them before they found each other’s eyes again.

“Well, Jack.” Gabriel grinned and Jack wondered when they started talking to each other using their first names. “I’ve heard you’re a horrible dancer. Wanna learn some steps?”

Jack contented himself with finishing his punch before he answered, which turned out to be really difficult since his brain had decided to leave him completely. On any other day, he would have laughed at himself for his stupidity but right now, he was enjoying the wonderful warm feeling in his belly which refused to let him alone since Gabriel smiled.

“You only want to see me failing, admit it,” he slurred as he set down the glass. Oh, since when was his tongue so heavy? Gabriel’s face lost a bit of its smugness, which turned to concern. It didn’t take long before he gently took the next mug of punch Jack had already grabbed out of the dean’s hands.

Jack’s heart fluttered like a young bird in his chest. Did he drink too much alcohol?

“You know what, you can’t even talk properly. I’ll invite you to a round of dancing once you’re back in your senses. I’ll tell Ana you need someone to drive you home, alright?”

With that, Gabriel had turned around before Jack could even react properly. He was left behind, heart racing, next to five empty mugs of punch. In wonder, he touched his chest to feel his heart beating. It hadn’t reacted like that in years, and Jack didn’t completely know how to handle it.

But he would figure it out, he was sure, once, he was sober and he had his ‘dancing lesson’ with Gabriel. A stupid grin sneaked on his lips.

Maybe, Winter Dance wasn’t that bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my story? I would be honored if you would tell me! If you want to see more, you can follow me on [Tumblr](https://kyiora.tumblr.com)! 
> 
> **If you're interested in commission me check my[profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyiora/profile) for further information!**
> 
> I wish you all a beautiful Christmas and the best luck!


End file.
